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Cherry Grove Archives Collection Film Festival
The Cherry Grove Archives Collection Film Festival was established in 2015 as a cinematic celebration of Cherry Grove's proud 170-year history and that of other LGBTQ commnunities all around the world.
While this summer weekend event is a vital fundraiser for the Archives' operating and digitizing costs, our goal is to bring people together to both educate and celebrate our culture with a bounty of fabulous films.
Our beautiful beach community has supported and nurtured LGBTQ artists, performers and musicians since it began, which is why we are dedicated to presenting films that bring gay history to life. It's vital that we don't forget our past, and by taking a look back at where we've come from, we may have a better vision of the future.
The festival began as a way of sharing the archival films, current documentaries and experimental works that reflect Cherry Grove (Fire Island) from our extraordinary past to our colorful present. The CGACFF also showcases projects that speak to our unique environment and outrageous community, from film makers everywhere.
The Cherry Grove Archives Committee (CGAC) has diligently been preserving everything from 8 millimeter films to family albums- all donated by members of the community who have graciously decided to share their lives and experiences.
Each CGACFF (hosted every two years) is a curated collection of documentaries, short films and restored masterpieces that speak to the LGBTQ experience of our beach community and others abroad.
Through our festival we seek to showcase works from queer communities around the globe. We hope to present everything from films about beach life to political activism, films that express individuality and the pursuit of equality.
2022 films...
ROSELAND- BALLAD OF BOB LEVINE
CGAC Production
80 min
Eclectic. Iconic. Bob Levine has been entertaining the community of Cherry Grove as his alter ego "Rose" for over 50 years and he is still going strong. Spending summers at his home “Roseland” in the Grove, Bob always surrounds himself with a colorful cast of characters and has weathered many storms to become a well-loved queer personality known all over the world.
LIPSTICK OF THE BRAVE
Director: Bill Plympton
6 min
Lipstick of the Brave represents the animated journey of Madstone Rowan, composer and performer, as they find inspiration in the rock and pop music which inspired them to move beyond the gender binary and embrace their non-binary self. Through Bill Plympton's poignant animation, homage is paid to the songs and artists that lifted Madstone on their journey to embrace all expressions of gender and sexuality. The animation is set to the music written and sung by Madstone Rowan.
THE ALBUM
Director: Raymond Rea
15 min
The Album pays homage to a photo album from the 1940s/50s/60s given to me by a Great Uncle who was also a pre-Stonewall Gay Man. Combining a wide range of historical and archival material with a passionate look at photography itself, the film examines generational changes in one family by looking at the changes in GLBT presence.
BECOMING CHAVELA
Director: Joyce Callo
17 min
"Becoming Chavela” is a film adapted from the docu-cabaret about iconic Mexican singer Chavela Vargas' life and music, set within the art world and social milieu of mid-century Mexico City when it was the cultural capital of Latin America.
GAY HISTORY TOUR
Director: Adam Enright, Aaron Fuksa
8 min
In New York City's Greenwich Village, an increasingly unhinged queer history tour guide proves it's not always good to keep the past in the present.
OUR DUNES
CGAC Production
15 min
A community feature made in coordination with the Cherry Grove Dunes Fund, narrator and Fire Island Horticulturist Todd Erickson takes us on a tour of our dunes' history. From the hurricane of 1938 that wiped out most of all the houses, to the impacts felt by Sandy in 2012, proving healthy and well maintained dunes have helped protect the homes and businesses of the Grove for decades.
PRESENTING SAL PIRO
CGAC Production
15 min
One of the most celebrated community show directors, Sal Piro productions were both fabulously elaborate and wonderfully entertaining. His work spans ten years- writing and presenting some of the campiest musical adventures in our community's history.
FIFI VA LA PLAGE
Director: Kathryn Roake
5 min
This is a whimsical tale about a lesbian dog whose playfulness gets her into trouble and ends up taking her on the adventure of her life at Coney Island.
WHO KILLED ROSE LEVINE
Director: Sal Piro
90 min
This original 1994 production of "Who Killed Rose Levine" was written and directed by Sal Piro and performed with all-star Cherry Grove cast at the Community House and Theater. Billed as a backstage murder mystery, the audience is taken on a musical ramp to find out who's killed drag icon Rose Levine, culminating with her performing at her own funeral.
HAVEN
CGAC Production
30 min
An original CGAC Production, this dramatic short film was inspired by our recent exhibition at the New-York Historical Society in 2021 entitled Safehaven: Gay Life in 1950s Cherry Grove. In a time when being gay is a prosecutable crime, two young women explore their desires for love and community through a romantic summer in the magical queer hamlet of Cherry Grove.
DANS LA NATURE
Director: Marcel Barelli
5 min
In nature, a couple is a male and a female. Well, not always! A couple is also a female and a female. Or a male and a male. You may not know it, but homosexuality isn't just a human story.
I FEEL A SONG COMING ON
Director: Michael Fisher
25 min
I Feel A Song Coming On is a conversation between three long standing members of the community of Cherry Grove, Fire Island. The subjects range from poppers to antisemitism and everything in between. This rich tapestry is a great example of the power of a story and the power of LGBTQ history in Cherry Grove. The film was shot in the Cherry Grove Community Center which has served as the creative headquarters for performance and the arts in Cherry Grove for decades.
RIDE THAT ASS
CGAC Production
15 min
Orangeena's whimsical and wacky costumes have been the perfect addition to the Invasion of the Pines over the years. She's always thoughtful, sometimes silly, oddly glamorous and always absolutely fabulous. But the year she showed up as the Virgin Mary on the back of a REAL donkey was not only iconic, it took a lot of planning.
RELEASE
Director: Pierre Jean Gonzalez, Paul Anthony Notice II
15 min
An experimental short film looking into the mind of a Gay, Afro-Latino questioning his self worth. Inspired and based on a poem by Cedric Leiba Jr. Pierre Jean Gonzalez is a New York based actor, producer and up in coming directer hailing from the Bronx, NY.. Currently playing Alexander Hamilton in the National North American Tour of Hamilton, this directing experience has opened his eyes to the importance of showing and telling POC stories.
BLOOD SISTERS
Director: Richard E. Haywood
5 min
A mini documentary about the untold contributions lesbians made during the A.I.D.S epidemic.
MAKING LEGENDS
CGAC Production
15 min
Crowning a new Homecoming Queen each year has been a Cherry Grove tradition since 1976, so its no surprise that with over 40 queens, many become community icons. The "Legends" shows are the biggest celebration of many of our past queens. Matt Baney explains the origins of the event and originality of all our HQs.
PAT ROCCO DARED
Director: Bob Christie, Morris Chapdelaine
90 min
In the 1970’s Playboy magazine dubbed Pat Rocco the King of the Nudies, but he is much more than an erotic filmmaker. Rocco is an activist, artist, filmmaker, and entertainer. He’s the whole Hollywood package, with one more story to tell: his own. Audiences will be amazed and inspired by the things that Rocco dared to do. .
IN THE MEAT RACK
Director: koitz
60 min
One of the most famous gay cruising destinations in the world and one of the most controversial areas of land, this mecca of manlove has a history that expands past sex. Inspiring art, providing a place of solace and community, the Meat Rack deserves to be acknowledged for its importsnt impact on queer culture for many decades.
FORT
Director: Ryan Harman, Craig Hunter
8 min
FORT Is a short, experimental process film documenting beach trips taken by co-directors Craig Hunter and Ryan Harman. They build forts with sheets, rubber bands, and materials (like driftwood) scavenged from the shore. These temporary shelters become oasis for sunbathing, relaxing, and listening to music together. FORT Deliberately subverts and disregards both chronology and geography to focus on the very process of constructing a beach fort.
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
Director:Joe Fox
40 min
“From Darkness To Light” is a documentary film that tells the story of the Peter Krueger Clinic (PKC) – one of the first HIV/AIDS clinics in the United States, which was established at Beth Israel Hospital in 1989. Started during the height of the epidemic in New York City. This powerful film traces the clinic’s origins and its impact over the last 3 decades, as told by the patients and staff that have called it home.
ESTHER NEWTON MADE ME GAY
Director: Jean Carlomusto
90 min
Agility, persistence and passionate inquiry have driven Esther Newton’s survival as a butch lesbian, octogenarian athlete, and groundbreaking scholar whose life’s work has influenced generations of LGBTQ activists and scholars.
The film tells her story of awakening to gay life in the 1950’s, the women’s liberation movement and lesbian-feminism, drag culture and forging a butch identity which for her is now in conversation with trans-masculinity.